IrriSAT - an Irrigation management and crop

water use benchmarking system

John Hornbuckle, Richard Soppe, Evan Christen, CSIRO Land and Water,

Griffith, NSW, Australia

Janelle Montgomery NSW I&I, Moore, NSW, Australia

Outline

• Overview of the IrriSAT system - main

components

• Science behind IrriSAT - background

• Experience with IrriSAT in Cotton and

viticulture irrigated systems

• Future directions R&D

Aims / Goals / Approach

• Aim - to overcome the costs and complexities of irrigation scheduling

• Driving Goal - capturing the bulk of the ‘market’ and providing them with a tool for assisting irrigation decisions to deliver real water savings or efficiency improvements

• The Approach – use emerging technologies* –

• Satellite Remote Sensing (a world wide sensor system)

• SMS (a world wide information delivery platform)

* 1st SMS message was sent in 1992 (20 years ago)

Landsat 5 satellite launched in 1984 (28 years ago)

Overview of IrriSATSMS

Determination of a crop

coefficient (Kc) from

satellite image

ETo from Weather

Station and ETo

forecast

Incorporates

management/soil/water/salinity

constraints

On Ground

Satellite images used to

determine plant

performance of an irrigators

crop Representing

Individual

Paddocks

Satellite

Measurements

Potential Evaporation based

on Atmospheric Demand

ETc = ETo X Kc

Crop water use determined and

irrigation requirement

Daily irrigation

scheduling

information

delivered to

irrigators

How does IrriSAT help me irrigate ?

• Using the FAO 56 approach

ETc = ETo x Kc

Actual

water use

of crop

Reference

water use –

weather

station or 7

day forecast

Crop

Coefficient

– relates

your crop to

the

reference

crop

= x Kc ?

Previously

getting site

specific crop

coefficients

has been

difficult – RS

overcomes

this

Limitations of traditional kc approaches

Gaining individual crop coefficients

• Multi-spectral satellites

overpass every 8 -16

days

• Images of

everyone's individual

crop is taken with a

30x30m resolution

• This information can

be used for gaining

site and management

specific crop

coefficients

Visible light

Calculated NDVI

NDVI

• NDVI = (RNIR – Rred) / (RNIR + Rred)

NDVI = (Band 4 - Band 3) / (Band 4 + Band 3)

Crop Coefficient : Canopy Cover

0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

1.2

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Canopy Cover (%)

Cro

p C

oeff

icie

nt,

Kc

Lettuce

Pepper

2006

y = 0.7661x + 0.1028

R2 = 0.9344

0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0IR Canopy Cover

Lan

dsat

ND

VI

Red LettucePerennialMelonsGarlic2005

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

1.4

1.6

1.8

2

0.0

2.0

4.0

6.0

8.0

10.0

12.0

14.0

16.0

16/08/2005 5/10/2005 24/11/2005 13/01/2006 4/03/2006 23/04/2006

Cro

p C

oe

ffic

ien

t

ET

(m

m)

Date

ETo

ETc Drip

Kc

Determining Kc from NDVI - grapevines

Kc = f (NDVI)

Kc http://www.irrigateway.net/kcmap/

ETo

• Weather data used to calculate reference crop water use (ETo)

ETo -http://www.irrigateway.net/weatherstations

How does the IrriSAT schedule ?

ETc = ETo x Kc Actual

water use

of crop

.. But still in a format that’s not much use

for irrigators! (mm/day)

..Need to convert to a pump run time

IrriSATSMS

IrriSATSMS Making the scheduling

information useful

Irrigation

Rainfall

Daily SMS delivery of irrigation scheduling information

Seasonal water

balance information

Pump/dripper run

time to replace ET

since last irrigation

or rainfall

Example of daily SMS sequence

Reference or zero point

IrriSAT

Spatial Irrigation scheduling /

water management information

Cotton - Crop Variability

Cotton – Furrow

Waterbalances - MIA 2008/09 season

Group Percentage (%)

Within +-0.2 ML/ha 50%

With +- 0.5 ML/ha 25%

More 0.5 ML/ha 5%

Less 0.5 Ml/ha 10%

Stopped 10%

Percentage of Irrigators within water balance group

Waterbalance traces – MIA 2008/09 season

Majority of irrigators

closely followed system

Two week period of high ETc

IrriSAT - Benchmarking

Regional Crop Water Use

Yield/production/water use relationships

Low deficit irrigations

Lateral

Move

Systems

IrriSATSMS/IrriSATWEB Nodes

• Current Areas (2011-2012 irrigation season)

• Murrumbidgee (Grapes and Citrus)

• Hawkesbury-Nepean (Turf, Pasture, Citrus, Stone fruit)

• Gwydir/Namoi/ Walgett (Cotton)

• Goulburn Valley (Grapes)

• Mildura (Grapes and Citrus)

• International Nodes being established

• Cambodia

• Iraq

Future directions R&D

Future directions

• Establishing IrriSAT nodes in developing countries – Iraq and

Cambodia

• Incorporating thermal band for stress determination in wine grape

production

• Finding alternatives for Landsat

• Whole of irrigation area water ordering/demand management from large

storage dams

• Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area – 200 000 irrigated hectares – 1300

GL allocation

• 7 days travel time from dam release to off-take in Irrigation Area

• 24 hr water availability for customers

• Over/under order losses are financially costly for the Irrigation

company

Cumulative 3 & 7 day ETref forecast

8/1/10 9/1/10 10/1/10 11/1/10 12/1/10 1/1/11 2/1/11Date (m/d/yy)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Cu

mu

lative

ET

ref (

sh

ort

) [m

m]

Cumulative 3-day ETref (short) forecast

Cumulative 3-day ETref (short) observed

Cumulative 7-day ETref (short) forecast

Cumulative 7-day ETref (short) observed

Cumulative 7-day ETref (short) 25yr avg

Irrigation Demand Management Farm

No.

Kc CSIRO

Forecast

Eto

(Next

day)

Forecast

Water

Demand

(Next

day)

1045 0.5 8 5 ML

1085 0.9 8 7 ML

144 0.95 8 12 ML

784 0.21 8 2 ML

108 0.22 8 4 ML

1478 0.35 8 6 ML

221 0.7 8 7 ML

2658 0.18 8 2 ML

Total

Demand

Forecast

For this

off-take

45 ML

Farm

No.

Kc CSIRO

Forecast

Eto

(Next 4

days)

Forecast

Water

Demand

(Next 4

days)

1045 0.5 36 18 ML

1085 0.9 36 22 ML

144 0.95 36 11 ML

784 0.21 36 41 ML

108 0.22 36 20 ML

1478 0.35 36 27 ML

221 0.7 36 5 ML

2658 0.18 36 6 ML

Total

Demand

Forecast

For this

off-take

150 ML

Farm

No.

Kc CSIRO

Forecast

Eto

(Next 7

days)

Forecast

Water

Demand

(Next 7

days)

1045 0.5 65 28 ML

1085 0.9 65 39 ML

144 0.95 65 27 ML

784 0.21 65 82 ML

108 0.22 65 74 ML

1478 0.35 65 56 ML

221 0.7 65 10 ML

2658 0.18 65 11 ML

Total

Demand

Forecast

For this

off-take

327 ML

Conclusions

• IrriSAT provides useful real time information on crop

water use across large areas at low cost – validated with

actual irrigators across the major production areas in

Australia

• IrriSAT when combined with yield data provides detailed

information on benchmarking the performance of

irrigation/row configurations and effects on irrigation

decisions on yield

• The system is scalable and provides useful information

for individual farmers. It also scales from the farm to the

irrigation system level for water ordering.

Further Information

• Download IrriSATSMS technical report

• http://www.irrigationfutures.org.au/images

DB/news/irrisatsms_v_60_finalwAppendix.

pdf

• Visit the IrriGATEWAY website

www.irrigateway.net